Roaring Steel: The Emergence of Fully Autonomous Weapons and the Tragedy of the Somme (1916)

Roaring Steel: The Emergence of Fully Autonomous Weapons and the Tragedy of the Somme (1916)

In 1916, the Somme river basin in northern France became a battlefield of blood and mud, dominated by the roar of machines. The offensive that had begun to relieve the battle lines at Verdun turned into a disaster between the British, French, and Germans that resulted in more than one million casualties. Especially on the first day of the war, the British forces suffered losses of over 57,000 men, and the assault was engulfed by machine gun fire.

The world's first tank, the Mark I, and the German automatic machine gun, the MG 08, were fielded in this battle. The latter kept firing continuously beyond the will of the soldiers, forcing those advancing to the ground one after another. The scene was no longer one of a man fighting, but of a man giving his life to a machine.

The Battle of the Somme was the moment when, beyond tactical errors, machines began to surpass ethics: at the intersection of the MG 08 and the Mark I, mankind learned that "killing without judgment" could be a reality. It was also the moment when the door to the era of fully autonomous weapons quietly opened.